Mount Dora's IceHouse to stage 'Noises Off'

That's one of the places the audience goes in Michael Frayn's play "Noises Off!" which opens at 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 20, at the Sonnentag Theatre at the IceHouse.

The plot turns on the actors playing characters who are playing characters in a play-within-a-play aided by a set that pivots so the audience alternates between watching from the front to catching the action backstage.

Got it? Think of the poor actors.

"The actors have it rough," said Duncan Bahr, who plays the director of the play-within-a-play. "They have to play characters within characters. The play they are putting on, 'Nothing On,' is a typical farce, like a Benny Hill skit, with lots of entrances and exits, some simultaneous."

In Act I the cast of "Nothing On," seen from the front, cast members are seriously unready to begin their tour, flummoxed by their entrances and exits. Act II, seen from backstage, takes place at a matinee on the play's tour and the cast is falling apart. Act III, seen again from the front, the play is nearing the end of its run and all semblance of plot and order has been abandoned.

"It's a train wreck," Bahr said.

Real-life director Darlin Barry said making the play works only if she and her cast can create moments that startle the audience with their precise timing.

"It's like playing with a feather," she said. "It's also like Chinese acrobats, one riding a bicycle and nine more riding on top."

Jennifer Bonner plays the sensible Belinda.

"You are going to laugh," she said.

David Clevinger created the set, Amy Hadley designed the lighting and Chelsey Batson created the costumes.

The play will continue at the theater, 1100 N. Unser St., through Oct. 13.